niime 百科

Encyclopedia of niime

—— You have announced that you quit making shawls, but started making masks!

Tamaki

Yes. I did on the first of April.

—— I understood it was the quick response to the threat of the current Coronavirus situation.

Tamaki

We feel it was not fast enough.

—— You think so?

Tamaki

I believe we made the first mask sample on the thirtieth of January.

—— That was pretty fast, right?

Tamaki

Yeah, but we should have been faster, considering that date.

—— Do you have some regrets?

Tamaki

I do a little in that I should have prepared more, but overall, I think this is the quickest result we could get.

Sakai

From the earliest stage, I suggested we should change to making masks.

Tamaki

We tried many things all of last year, such as having a new machine CAM; continued development to find new sewing shops, and outsourcing to other places. We tried to do many things, but we couldn’t make it for most of them. After making masks, however, it seems everything has started moving in the right directions.

—— All your efforts and trials have been accumulated into making masks.

Tamaki

So it looks like the preparation stage for making masks.

Sakai

Yeah.

—— You could say that as a result.

Tamaki

I didn’t know precisely during those days, however, I think I had it on my mind that I needed to try something like this.

—— You commented in the past that you had a wish to be the one for someone’s emergency. I acknowledged from the beginning that you had to recognize the need for risk preparedness.

Tamaki

Yeah, since 2011, when we had the Great East Japan Earthquake. I have been preparing myself with my intentions, which provides us with this excellent chance to help others. We have just started doing this, but I know the world will change from now on. One of my wishes has been on raising people who could adjust themselves to have this preparedness mentality. People wouldn’t change in “peaceful “times.

—— Ummm.

Tamaki

Even if I warned my staff or pressured them, they didn’t care because they have lived in relative security. But such things they have become used to is changing. They are beginning to understand what I have been warning them about. They are awakening themselves to the possibility that they have to take care of themselves responsibly, and not rely on someone else. I think there are significant worldwide changes that will make us more aware of ourselves.

—— I see.

Tamaki

What we spoke on during this morning’s meeting was how we cope with our lives in this Declaration of Emergency and also discussed with our staff about how we would make our living if the economy stopped.

—— What we would do if we were in a limited state?

Tamaki

I asked them what way they would choose, hunting hogs or going fishing? Some raised their hands for fishing; (laugh) some for hunting; others to grow vegetables, and in such discussions, I told them that they would have no problems to survive. I think if they prepare for the worst situations, they would be able to survive in whatever bad situations that would come. I am sure such conditions wouldn’t come soon, though, knowing the worst scenario would make us flexible enough to move on to become ready when it happens. I think we live in such times now.

—— ……

Tamaki

If I did talk about it a year ago, they would laugh and say “You are talking about silly things. Such times would never come.”

—— You became like a prophet.

Tamaki

You are right. (laugh) That’s why I have been saying that wars would come.

Sakai

I remember you have been saying that.

—— What can I say…..Risk Awareness is the sense of doing things ahead of schedule.

Sakai

You are right.

—— That’s an incredible point.

Sakai

Tamaki is incredible in that sense, right?

—— Yes, you, too, Mr Sakai! I feel you two have the ability to predict, which inspires you to get the ideas to start something new.

Sakai

You know what? The existing large apparel companies have been holding the leading shares, and we were one of the minorities in this apparel industry. Still, our products have been favoured in this market, and now we are getting ready to be one of the major companies. And I feel this time we could start anew in a sense. I believe this time would give us an excellent chance to reset and renew many things, and we could restart our business in a proper light.

—— I think your way of thinking is very positive. The world will change if we have more people like you who could think more positively.

Sakai

I think if we have more such positive people, the economy is pretty bad though, it would keep working, and never stop. As far as talking about this industry, we do not wholly depend on other companies by requesting orders. Because we could do the whole process in our company, we can survive by making masks and selling them in this situation. I think we will choose more of what we need most from now on, but I believe the people who create things through their own strength would be able to move forward. They may keep the cycle of our economy going.

—— I see.

Sakai

We are making masks now, but when this Coronavirus is over, we may make shawls again. We don’t know what we are going to make in the future, but I could say we will be living in an uncertain world.

—— I feel you are ready for the future in advance, that you could respond to whatever situations you may have.

Sakai

(speaking to Tamaki) We ended up being like this, right? We have been just doing whatever we wanted to do against the flow of time, which wasn’t well-received. After that, we managed to survive, but we were one of the minor companies, not in the major market. But now, we became highly evaluated.

Tamaki

I have believed what we have been doing is right.

Sakai

I knew we did right. The things we have been doing finally works now.

Tamaki

They said such business current is said to have a 10-year life span.

—— I don’t think what tamaki niime has been doing is for only 10 years. It has a broader vision.

Tamaki

Well, we don’t make things in just consideration for a 10-year life span.

Sakai

No. We haven’t made considerations for such time scales. We don’t have that idea in a positive sense. Basically, we are not interested in following trends. We originally stray from trend fashions.

—— I see.

Sakai

That’s the way we could work flexibly. This time we could shift to making masks flexibly, too.

Tamaki

For 5 years after we started this brand business, we focused on our inspirations rather than thinking logically, because we wanted to make things to fit our feelings. But after the company became a big organization and when we needed to teach our staff, we were not able to just depend on our inspirations. Only instructing the staff to follow our motivations was not enough, so it was necessary to teach them to think logically and guide them towards the results.

Sakai

No, they couldn’t understand it.

Tamaki

I knew I had to make plans and instruct them, but I was frustrated because I couldn’t make it work well. Recently, I found out I should create an environment for them to be able to learn naturally, not by focusing on them to teach them. At first, I showed them my examples by just thinking for myself and doing it my way. And then, it seemed things got better to work out. After all, the best time for them to learn is right now. In the past, I was struggling as to why it didn’t work well, but when I think back, which struggles helped me change my mind to see the big picture, that they could follow me after I showed them my examples in creating my ideas and making them. As a result, I understand showing my examples and experiencing it together helped them learn and grow. Old craftsmen teach us to say, “Steal skills by eyes, not by mouth”. It is better to learn by your experiences first, not just from the logic in your head.

—— There are gaps that come out in what you want to teach people when you just tell them about it.

Tamaki

Surely there are. There were gaps. Teaching them effectively, I understood that instructing should be easy and straightforward. Thankfully, the real learning opportunity came this time, when I thought it is essential to teach them through experience, which may take more effort and make difficulties, though. By having this experience, it is easier for them to learn. Our purpose was to help people to grow, right?

Sakai

I knew the disadvantage of logical thinking is just like having rumours, telling a person A to a person B, and a person B to a person C…

—— There is a factual gap that conveys slightly different information.

Sakai

You are right.

Tamaki

They sometimes misunderstand the concepts. (a bitter laugh)

—— They need to have experiences with the concepts.

Tamaki

That’s right. Specifically, we change our products from situation to situation.

Sakai

Telling instinctively may sound vague, but it would give them good points to understand.

Tamaki

That would make you wonder or amazed.

（continued）

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the situation changes minute to minute. We feel a greater sense of crisis in which our old manual ways won’t work from this point forward, and the flexible responses to the current conditions are needed every day. Ms Tamaki has been focusing on helping people to be “independent mentally”, that her policy of raising people has exposed to be meaningful at this time. They are not reading the times, but rather walking ahead of them. Please look forward to Tamaki and Sakai’s passionate talk, discussing “How to play” in life going forward..

Original Japanese text by Seiji Koshikawa.
English translation by Adam & Michiko Whipple.